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The European Commission has expressed the wish to harmonize energy regulations in the building sector and at the same time has formulated goals for promoting the use of renewable energy sources. This paper studied the possible synergy of these two targets. To make a first step in this research topic renewable energy techniques are considered as environmental innovations for which incentives, being a public good, is dependent on governmental intervention, like energy policy instruments.

The thermal performance of a building depends on a number of building design parameters. Development of ‘energy efficient building concepts’ therefore requires insight in the here mentioned interrelation. In the recent past many advanced simulation tools

People employed in building offices have new needs in terms of comfort at the working place. To satisfy these needs, it is necessary that architects check carefully the efficiency of the corresponding new systems that they conceive in order to improve these people working conditions. This study shows that it is possible to optimize the sizing up of the different elements of an office cell front (envelope) containing, in addition to the glass wall, sun-breaker strips and an electrochromic protection. For that purpose, the inverse simulation technique was used thanks to several programs.

The EC funded ‘SmartHomes’ project commenced in 2001 as a 3 year programme. The primary objective is to establish Internet-based energy services and test these within field trials in Sweden, Greece, the Czech Republic and the UK. The tasks include the pro

IQ-Test is a Thematic Network supported by the European Community under the EESD Programme.The objective of IQ-TEST is to further develop common quality procedures for the PASSYS/PASLINK test cell facilities that exist in 12 European countries. This should consolidate thenetwork, integrate the new test sites and strengthen its common approach of support for new product developments in the field of innovative building components.Round robin tests are underway to assess both the inter-site quality of testing and analytical procedures of the participants.

A common architectural feature of curtain wall facades is constituted by a transparent double-glazing unit mounted in front of a recessed interior metal panel. It is typically installed in spandrel areas, where its required to provide to the faade not only surface consistency but also depth.To evaluate condensation risk on this type of envelope element, an experimental program has being carried out on a typical facade panel (Shadow-box) provided by Permasteelisa.

Advanced daylighting strategies and systems can considerably reduce a building’s electricity consumption and also significantly improve the quality of light in an indoor environment. The prediction of these improvements requires good models of glazing pro

The optical performance of redirecting daylight materials under given outdoor illumination conditions is characterized by mean of virtual goniophotometry, and results are expressed as light source equivalent distributions that can be then used as input to daylighting simulations. Such a concept has been practically applied to the SerraGlaze product and will be extended with real case experiment.

In the framework of harmonisation of the Slovene legislation with the European, in 1995 the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning of the Republic of Slovenia began with the preparation of new Slovene standards and regulations. In the first phase adopting of a whole range of standards was planned. In the second phase, which is presently running, the preparation and adopting of regulations has to be completed.

In order to improve the user acceptance of an automatic shading device controller, user wishes concerning the blind position are learned and integrated in the automatic controller through an innovative adaptation system developed with the use of Genetic Algorithms. Simulations with virtual users have shown learning and anticipating capabilities of the system. This paper explains in detail the adaptation process and shows one typical example of simulation results.